Tuesday 19 November 2013

2013 Harvest - Canola

Just finished reaping Canola for 2013
 Header with 'pickup' on front
 Full box of Canola on board (see grey stuff at top of header)
 Auger dispatched to transfer Canola into Chase Bin
 


Farmer boy exiting the header after
a ride with dad.
 Grandpa on the steps - he still likes a daily ride in the machinery, even at 76
 Off again to reap another row, chaff coming out the back
Last Header load being transferred into the truck for delivery to the silos.
Now onto the Barley

Thursday 7 November 2013

Roo's Loose in the Top Paddock!

Our local primary school recently requested a larger school bus to cater for some extra students.

The bus drivers are a local husband and wife team and do a great job of the bus run, of which, the duration is about 1 hour and 15 minutes ever morning and afternoon.

When they found out what type of bus the Education Department had allocated us, they refused to take delivery of it.

Apparently these buses have a automatic sliding door that will only open when the bus in on level ground!!! Hardly appropriate for rural roads, let alone dirt roads!!!
 

The sliding door also allows dust to get into the bus, so you can imagine what a mess that would make, especially during Harvest when the dirt roads turn to a fine powdery bull dust. Lovely!!!!


 
 
So, to the SA Education Department I would say - "Darling, in case you haven't ventured past Gepps Cross in your lifetime, many country school bus routes are on horse and cart style bitumen or dirt roads. There are no bus shelters to protect passengers from the rain, there is no sign to say 'bus stop', there is no set aside area to protect your polished shoes from the mud in winter, there is no pretty signage spelling out the bus timetable. Perhaps you should get out more before making decisions that are clearly made from a citycentric mind!"

 


  "Off you go now dear, back to the drawing board!"


Sunday 3 November 2013

New Windrower

We have a new Windrower this year.

The windrower cuts the Canola and lays it neatly in rows for it to dry out before it is harvested. Some states and countries call this exercise 'swathing' but here in SA we call it windrowing.




We cut the Canola a few weeks ago and then left it to dry out



Looking back behind the windrower


Paddock in front of our house



Auto steer computer with all the fingerprints on the touch screen


The little black 'fingers' position the Canola into the cutter bar, its cut and then is propelled by conveyor belts into a neat row underneath the windrowing tractor



Neat and tidy


Left to dry in the rows. The Canola are little black seeds inside the skinny bean looking pods.





Dry pod with Canola seeds inside

Saturday 2 November 2013

Housework Attire

We've had some good spring rains this year which has been great for our crops. But, there is always a catch!

FLIES!!

We have an abundance of those small 'drunk' flies this year. You know the one's that float around in a daze, get behind your glasses and get stuck! Far Out!





They stick fast to the wet
washing

The appropriate headwear is a must.

Otherwise they try to infiltrate any orifice they can find!

At least we haven't had many maggot spewin' blowies so far- touch wood! But I'm sure they'll arrive in their own good time.

Friday 1 November 2013

Apparently Tourists Are More Important Than Farmers!



We recently had a wonderful family holiday to Western Australia, it was great. But I couldn't help noticing that while we were doing the 'tourist/rubber neck' thing, that mobile phone coverage was - well - pretty darn good!


 
So this is our view crossing the Nullarbor. It's a beautiful place, not barren nothingness like some people waffle on about.


While crossing the Nullarbor my trusty Nokia 6120 had FULL mobile coverage! Go figure!!!

And the majority of the southern areas of WA also had good mobile coverage, it was great, I didn't know myself. We even had quick internet courtesy of a prepaid dongle thingy and the great mobile service.

Trouble is - now I really know what some of us are missing out on!

I came to the conclusion that tourists are obviously more important to Australian society than farmers.

So I looked up some stats:

Tourism is 5.3% of Australia's GDP

Agriculture contributes 3% of Australia's GDP

While there is not a great deal of difference in these figures, there seems to be a huge gap in the equity of services delivered and sustained in rural areas, especially those that don't attract the tourist dollar.